Leading senators on Monday petitioned multiple Obama
administration agencies to stop stonewalling a congressional
investigation into the immigration histories of at least 113
foreign-born individuals implicated in terrorist operations after
legally entering the United States, according to a copy of the letters.
The latest investigation comes just days after the Washington Free Beacon
disclosed that an additional 41 foreign-born individuals who legally
entered the United States had been arrested for planning a number of
terror attacks.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) disclosed
Monday that they had been pressuring the Obama administration for months
to disclose the immigration histories of these foreign-born individuals
implicated in terror plots.
Agencies including the Departments of State and Homeland Security
have stonewalled these efforts, declining since mid-2015 to provide
Congress additional information. This move has prompted speculation
among lawmakers that the administration is withholding information to
prevent the exposure of major gaps in the U.S. screening process for new
immigrants.
“The American people are entitled to information on the immigration
history of terrorists seeking to harm them,” Cruz and Sessions wrote to the secretaries of State and Homeland Security and the attorney general.
Similar requests for information issued sent in August and again in December have not been answered by the administration
The letter cites a recent Free Beacon report detailing
that an additional 41 foreign-born individuals had been snagged on
terrorism-related charges since 2014. The disclosure of these previously
unknown accused terrorists brings the total number of foreigners
brought up on terrorism charges to 113.
Sessions and Cruz note that at least 14 of those foreigners accused
of terrorism were granted legal entrance to the United States as
refugees.
“Many more came through other immigration programs,” they wrote. “A
number of immigrant terrorists were even approved for citizenship.
Others are the U.S.-born children of foreign migrants whose presence in
the country would not be possible but for the immigration of their
parents.”
Many of these recently implicated foreigners have been caught by
authorities planning terrorist attacks on American soil, while others
were found to be involved in efforts to provide funding and material to
ISIS, according to an internal list of migrant terrorists codified by
congressional sources and viewed by the Free Beacon.
Cruz and Sessions are requesting that the agencies in question fill out a chart that includes only partial information about the 113 accused terrorists.
A senior congressional aide familiar with the investigation said the
soaring rate of immigration is taking a toll on the U.S. security
establishment.
“The cost of high rates of Muslim immigration are clear: enormous
security challenges combined with vast expenses to track and convict
those here attempting to wound Americans,” the source said….